Some inspiration...

It's all you need sometimes when things feel a little slow. The first of the paintwork has arrived thanks to Del Whitaker at D W Automotive. Gotta say it does look rather good and I've asked Stuart to lift his boot clear when climbing aboard. So here's an early weekend post as I'm very excited.

Hope you like the style of the number boards which are loosely based on the period bikes.
In other news the hose for the rear shock has finally arrived and the reservoir is now set in position for the overhaul. With that back later in the week and tyres from James White in the post, next weekend's goal has got to be a rolling chassis at last. My deepest thanks also go out to Jill and Stuart Calkin who have also made an offer of sponsorship, cheers Calky.

Other points of note this week are the new bracket made by Stuart's dad fitted straight on with the addition of some riv nuts to the air runners.
Well done Stuart's dad.

The sharp eyed amongst you will spot the lock wire, surprisingly tricky when the bolt heads are this close together. Also fitted were the coils which are also lock wired. Overkill maybe, still they won't come loose.

Just in case you're in the South West the naked bike (poor Emily) will be on show at Sammy Miller's on the 20th July at their MotoItaliano day. 
Maybe see you there.
Finally I can see that the blog has had over 3000 views and I thank you all for taking the time to read all the way to the bottom.

Ah well at least the there's footie on the telly....

OK I know they're a bunch of overpaid, diving, hair gelled, crybabies but just occasionally they do something quite exceptional, not often but occasionally. Failing that they are a distraction or at least a diversion when you're running out of things you can get on with. As is normal, most weeks a box of goodies (not Bill, Graeme and Tim) was on the expected list but upon opening I seemed to have received a food parcel. Turns out it was just packing to protect the contents but I am somewhat concerned by Peters diet.

"What was in the box" I hear you cry, well some jolly nice air runners with extra layers of carbon to survive the rigours of the TT.

They fitted straight on and with some new rubber mounts on popped the ECU with carbon dash. Now we did discover something and that was that the standard tachometer is 80mm diameter and the Corse one is 85mm. Peter's now going to produce a blank version of the dash for us mere mortals with standard clocks. Anyone going down this road in future will also notice that the standard clock is deeper than the electric version so careful positioning of the clock and ECU is required. All that said I now have a Laverda tacho to try that runs from the same P8 ECU, just might have to put a sticker over the name though.

Other parts were a splendid pair of end caps for the swingarm. Now as with some parts that are small, it is hard to justify the cost but when you realise the hours that go into making them and that there are around 20 layers of carbon in there it kinda makes sense. 

I've also added fixed studding and roll pinned to retain. This should be better than the standard bolts and I think is in line with race bikes of the day so it's also in keeping.
With the air runners in place and checking clearance with the dash I've popped on the brake and clutch reservoirs.

So with most of the larger parts to hand and fitted I've really only been able to trawl eBay and outlets for nuts and bits and bobs. Holes for the breather and air pressure sensors have been made in the air box along with tie wrap holes in carbon where required and some new lock stops have been fabricated.

Some lock wiring has taken place, one of the few things that I can say is staying as it is!

I even found the bobbins I'd been after all the time, so two M8 helicoils later we now have bobbins you can get a paddock stand on to. (Apologies to Stu, he'll know)

New hose clips and wiring waiting for a loom are there but the shock is at service still waiting for a new longer hose, so apart from the odd little job I'll get on with I'm running out of things I can do. Maybe it's just as well as I'm off to London for the rest of this week.

  
It really won't take that long to finish with everything in place but I'm trying to avoid constant fitting and stripping in case I miss a lockwire or Loctite'able part for safety.
Almost finally I'd like to thank Anthony at Avanti Race Parts for a box of very handy consumables and a rather nifty folding brake lever for the Brembo master.
Finally I'd also like to thank my employer TRE for their timely paid bonus, not enormous but it pays the bills. Please click on the following link to get Celeres as the highest referring site to ours at http://www.trerail.co.uk/. It'll be great to see this on the kitchen wall in a few weeks. 

Good things come to those who wait, you'll just have to wait a little longer Stu.

One busy Saturday later......

A week away put things on hold but with the promise of a box of carbon goodies from Peter at Oronero Friday couldn't come soon enough, oh and some home cooking would go down well also. I received a text from my wife, Liz, at 07.45 letting me know that a large apparently empty box had arrived, luckily she just managed to get dressed before dashing to meet the postman.   

Black gold had indeed landed on the doorstep, all I had to do was to get home from Crawley. Incidentally if anyone knows of anywhere decent to eat in Crawley please let me know it's a dire place.  
So calls were made and Stuart was happy to pop up Saturday and get stuck in and deliver the footpegs he'd been working on. Various tasks then ensued, Stuart got stuck into fitting the radiator and guard, followed by the hose kit. Whilst I "borrowed" bits off my 888 starting with these calipers.

A nice pair of billet brakes which will be paired with a Brembo radial master cylinder, hopefully they should do the job required. The rear sets bought by Rob Scheuer, president on the UKMOC, were fitted and of course adjustments and parts were required. More "borrowing" from the SSie gave up some gear change rod ends. The brake push rod was also relieved of it's position but this was found to be a little too long at minimum adjustment to give the required angle on the "I don't use it anyway" rear brake. Stuart was subsequently tasked with making a shorter one from a 6mm cap screw. He's also narrowing the front wheel spacer by 1mm to get the wheel back in the centre of the forks. This would have a been a much simpler solution than the previous owners shim method behind one caliper to stop it fouling the disc. Stuart being the owner of a lathe was also tasked with making a spacer for the new front brake protector, neither of the two supplied fitted the Renthal bars. In the meantime between cups of tea and coffee various parts were test fitted and checked, Loctited if good or listed for later work if required. We even discussed pit stop strategy and decided that as Liz is the lady of the team she should be doing the visor cleaning and a bit of dusting.

       
Most surprisingly the oil cooler was in almost mint condition and married with a new oil feed hose and fittings looks resplendent. They're all hidden by the fairing, but I know they're there. The carbon air box goes straight in with a pair of velocity stacks, each the size of a small tornado.

So come Sunday morning I have a basket full of goodies on eBay to press buy on, a selection of titanium pre drilled bolts and general bike build ephemera. This week I'll test fit the exhaust and make a decision on which to use, the original or the set off my 888 along with ordering hose clips, Bendix pads and chase up the paintwork.  

     
Apologies to the purists but a Japanese part may have sneaked under the radar.
Up until now I've been reluctant to ask and have been very appreciative of the offers of tyres and the assistance by my main sponsors but, if you'd like to get your name on the bike for the Classic by sponsoring test days, oil or even an oil filter please drop me a line at stafford@metronet.co.uk

Moving on.......

The engine's back!!!!

 But let's just step back and review what's been going on. So with the heads built, the crank balanced and the re bore back the engine was left with Chris to get stuck in. Due to having to be at the UKMOC weekender I had to miss the birth but did get over a week later to see the umbilical cord get cut, well by that I mean see the cams get dialled in. Prior to this a few other little internal jobs took place with the main bearing holders changed for later ones and a better shim selection. This entailed having the sockets bored to accept the later type. The crank has had some small tear drops added to the big ends to aid oil flow.

Gearbox assembled and checked for end float.

Some of the original lightened gears are re installed.

Except for the original primary drive gears, these have been replaced by later 1.84:1 as opposed to the original 2:1, Ah I hear you ask "why?". Right, thanks to Brad for this one, see "Ducati gearing" for the full explanation, but in a nutshell the same tooth on the primary gears now meets every 1888 revolutions as opposed to every other and it makes the gearing a bit longer, ideal for the TT course.

A couple more shots taken by Chris just to show the assembly process.

So as always the final part is the grand dialling of the cams. It all seems quite straight forward with some simple maths but you do need a couple of bespoke tools to make it as simple as Chris makes it look though. Timing is set to factory standard for now with the standard cams.

Once completed the last few pieces can get bolted into place like the snazzy Louigi Moto cover and a replacement water pump cover was fitted as the original one was cracked.

So home again and Stuart found time to pop up and assist in fitting the seat unit, this along with the tank is already at the paint shop D-W-Automotive to try and keep things moving along. Del has done work for me before and it is simply stunning. Emily will look good if nothing else. Which reminds me we have a date at Sammy Millers on the 20th July for the Italian Race Bike Day, eek!

Stu was also strangely drawn to the battery, at 791 grams as a racer I guess you would be. He did seem to stroke it a lot though.

  

So this weekend is all but over and I've managed to move forward a bit more with rear suspension in but the shock is still to be serviced. Upper and lower hugger fitted, sharks fin added along with what you can see.

I'll only get a couple of evenings in this week as I'm working away, hopefully as new items are added the build will get easier as at the moment I seem to have to do everything 3 times. Simple things like a worn thread on the sprocket carrier should be easy to fix but you find the previous repair helicoil that had been fitted, out of pitch so the sprocket retaining nut doesn't sit in the counterbore. So that's put to one side and the old 900SSie gives its carrier up for the cause. Ah well you can only ride one bike at a time, just don't tell the wife. 

And so it begins.......

Apologies for the lack of an update recently, Liz and I have been quite busy with final arrangements and attending the UKMOC Weekender 2014. An annual get together of all things Ducati Monster. It all seemed to go rather well, but now back to matters in hand.

"I'm going to spend, spend, spend!,"as Viv Nicholson once said. Unfortunately having not won the pools my bank account will have to suffice. So the crank is back from balancing.

What I didn't initially notice was that not only that the crank has been worked on, but the rotor on the end as well as both conrods have been balanced and matched. Things like this I like quite a lot, as in my mind this will help with not only with a smoother running engine but less wear on main bearings and the like.

Now I can tell you that the bottom end of the motor has been completed, I'll post up some pictures when I can as long as Chris has taken some. As I was out on UKMOC duty I missed getting over to the workshop. I hope the rest of the engine work will be completed this coming Saturday. Why? Because sitting on the floor at home is this!

Nick at Reality Motorworks has done a cracking job on the frame and wheels. On the right you will see where the frame number resides, I asked for this to be masked off so I can paint it and leave it readable should anyone need to read it in the future without having to resort to scraping off the powder coating.

Wheels are in satin black and the fronts will be adorned with some new Grimeca discs, Rich says they have Harris centres, Brembo bobbins and Grimeca for the outer. I've no idea but they look great. I'll get the new bearings in the front wheel as soon as the spacers have been machined to suit the 20mm axle.

A new set of injectors have been sourced down at Louigi Moto complete with a nearly new TPS, these replace the ones below.

I still have no idea how you can snap of both right hand side inlet mounts!
So this is where we are at today with some test assembly work going on. This is just as well as the bottom yoke I had intended to use had a very slightly differing offset to the OE one, so back to the old one which is fine, I had just preferred the look of the newer one. That said I'm going to fit a later SSie top yoke as the OE one has been randomly drilled to mount the reservoirs.

And finally, I mentioned in the last update that there was a name. Now bear with me here, with all the mention of a Nice Pair previously this put me in mind of the second album I ever bought. This was a double album called A Nice Pair and contained two Pink Floyd albums, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and A Saucerful of Secrets. One track is called See Emily Play which I also later found out is the name of Stuart's Nan, so that seemed to be a bit of good kismet.

So come to the IoM in August and see Emily play.

Great news!

Dear Stuart,
Congratulations! Your entry into at least one class at the Manx Grand Prix has been accepted subject to full payment being received. The class you have been accepted into is
Formula 1 Classic TT - August 16-30, 2014 @ Isle of Man
You will receive a separate confirmation email for each class into which you are accepted, so if you have entered more classes than the one above continue to watch your email for further confirmations. You may also log into your account at any time to see the status of your entry which includes race numbers that will be assigned to you at a later date.

Initially we have been allocated race number 104. Best pull my finger and build the lad a bike. Extra tea bags are on order for the hospitality suite.

Another week, another spend fest.
Both heads are now finished and don't they look fine.

 

A Nice Pair

 
V2 Adjustable Pulleys

As you can see one of the few good things that came with the original bike are this set of V2 adjustable cam pulleys. These give the ability to set and fine tune the opening and closing of the valves, not surprisingly most bikes that come from Ducati out of the crate are just given a factory setting. So there are little improvements to be made on nearly every Ducati on the road. If you'd like to learn more why not visit Brad Black's very informative data hoard here http://www.bikeboy.org/. As with most things on this build the pulleys you see above have had to have a strip and clean due to an excessive use of Loctite when not required. The barrels are still away being re-bored and honed so that delays the engine build another week or two as the crank still has to go to be balanced. Both wheels are now in for powder coating as well as a few other components, these should be back next week along with the frame when I can start building the rolling chassis. This should then give you all something nice to view.  That said here's a view of another nice pair. 

  

Another Nice Pair 

Red Adjusters!!!

After a quick turnaround the forks have returned with all new 20mm pistons kits and rebound adjusters, also fitted are new fork springs to suit Stu's weight. The bike also has a name now, but more of that next week.

Like so many projects, after a flurry of initial activity it's all been quiet on the 888 front for a while. Like a snowball at the top of a hill they do have the tendency to get bigger as they roll down, so at some point I do expect a whole package of things to assemble.

So where are we today?

The Rolling Chassis

Well to be honest it's not, but never fear stuff is going on. The frame is away for powder coating into gloss white, wheels and other parts to follow shortly. This is all being done by Nick Anderson at Reality Motor Works, I've had work done by Nick before and it is always of the highest quality, so if you need anything sorted just click on the link above for contact details.
The forks are off to either K-Tech or Maxton for a service and an upgrade with some new internals. It does cost a few bob but I'm trying to make the best I can inside the budget. Although I seem to be following Labour's old policy of spend, spend, spend, maybe we should call it Gordon Brown Racing.

The Engine Recipe

Casings 900SSie
Crank 900SSie (to be balanced)
Gearbox 900SSie
Pistons Standard 94mm 888 (Flat tops)
Conrods 748SP
Flywheel 749R
Alternator 996RS
Alternator Casing 996SPS
Cams Standard 888
Barrels 748S
Heads Standard 888 1mm skim

749R Flywheel

996SPS casing and 996RS alternator

The Engine

Some highs and lows, sort of as expected really. The highs are that the heads are now rebuilt. These looked so different at Louigi's last week  that I didn't even recognise them! One new valve guide was fitted as it was cracked, all the valves have been lapped in by hand. Next they have been fitted with lighter action RS springs, these give less resistance to the rotation of the belts and subsequently a little more power. Now these are really only suited to higher revving (racy) engines due to their lighter action so the tick over will be set higher at about 1800rpm. When at speed more of the sealing action is aided purely by the action of the valve moving north at speed. Clearances on the closure shims has been set to zero effectively, again to aid sealing, this was precision set by Chris by using a diamond lap to polish shims to his exacting satisfaction.

Chris dummy assembled this to show me the difference in pressure between the two types, and it really is staggering when you press down. Those of you with keen eyesight will see the difference between the standard and RS springs. The heads have been skimmed as well to give a slight rise in compression as we are using standard flat top 916 pistons. 

Standard cams and valves are going back in and with the other tweaks being made this should still give enough power to be competitive without failing to finish.

Before

After

It looks stunning when complete, you really need a perspex side on an engine to fully appreciate what's inside.

This week I have to drop of the 748S barrels for a re-bore, Nikasil coating and honing to suit the new pistons. We've had to do as the original barrels have such a hard coating that the engineer has been unable to get a decent hone from it. The upside is better cooling with the 748 barrels, the downside is another bill. Once that is done the crank assembly can be built and go away for balancing. After that is done this lot can start to go back together with new mains and gearbox bearings.

My thanks go out to James White of Willow Services and Guy Burton of Burton Engineering for their kind offers of a set of tyres each. (It's in print now chaps!) This means a great deal to me as they are friends that have come on board to assist with as much passion I think I as have to finish this project. I think together with the main sponsors we can build a bike that will do Stuart proud at the Classic.

In the meantime I have a set of knackered throttle bodies to sort out!